The 2005 Miyagi earthquake was a powerful earthquake

Earthquake

An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...

 that struck the east coast of the Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese island of Honshū

Honshu

is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait...

 at 11.46am (02:46 UTC) on August 16, causing casualties, building collapses and power outage

Power outage

A power outage is a short- or long-term loss of the electric power to an area.There are many causes of power failures in an electricity network...

s.

Earthquake characteristics

The earthquake began on Tuesday, August 16, 2005, and affected Japan's northeastern coast. It triggered a tsunami warning, and buildings shook 200 miles away in the capital, Tokyo. It was initially estimated to have a rating of 6.8., and the U.S. Geological Survey later registered it as a 7.2.

Damage and casualties

A tsunami warning was initially raised by the Japanese meteorological agency, but was lifted after only two small waves several centimeters high hit shore. Casualties included those killed because of a pool roof collapse in Sendai city, Miyagi

Miyagi Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku Region on Honshu island. The capital is Sendai.- History :Miyagi Prefecture was formerly part of the province of Mutsu. Mutsu Province, on northern Honshu, was one of the last provinces to be formed as land was taken from the indigenous Emishi, and became the...

 prefecture. Initial reports indicated 80 people were injured, but it was later reported by state broadcaster NHK

NHK

NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....

that one person was seriously hurt and thirteen were slightly injured. Seventeen thousand people lost power.

Humanitarian, economic, and environmental impact

20% of the world's earthquakes are centered around Japan. The Japanese have been developing systems for early warning of earthquakes. For people of the city of Sendai who were testing the new earthquake warning system, they received a warning of the earthquake from the Meteorological Agency 16 seconds before it reached the city, providing time to take cover. People in Tokyo received a message one minute before it hit. Such technology has since become much more popular and this quake is credited for that, since it was 60 miles off the coast of Japan and there was time for a warning.

Aftermath

Business resumed within a day. Japan's Earthquake Research committee said that the earthquake was not the big one that was predicted to strike in the next 30 years.

External links

• Headquarters for Earthquake Research
• Seismological notes from the Earthquake Research Institute, The University of Tokyo

38°8.9′N 142°16.6′E(epicenter)